Border Crossings Magazine

Highlights

Robert Enright’s interviews in Border Crossings set the standard and are regularly quoted and reprinted in books and other magazines.

A selection from the past two decades includes:

Kim Adams
David Alexander
David Altmejd, 23#4
Rebecca Belmore, 24#3
Shary Boyle, 26#3
Cecily Brown, 24#1
Ronnie Burkett
Janet Cardiff & George Bures Miller
Vija Celmins
Christo & Jeanne-Claude
Leonard Cohen, 26#4
George Condo
Tony Cragg
Donigan Cummings, 24#2
Max Dean, 26#1
Wim Delvoye, 24#4
Jim Dine
Peter Doig, 25#2
Aganetha Dyck
William Eakin, 24#2
Marcel van Eeden, 26#4
Gathie Falk
Fastwurms, 25#1
Eric Fischl
Walton Ford, 25#1
Vera Frenkel, 26#2
Ralph Gibson
Leon Golub
Betty Goodwin
April Gornik
Art Green, 24#4
Ann Hamilton
Gregory Henriquez, 25#4
David Hoffos, 25#3
Thaddeus Holownia
Rebecca Horn
Geoffrey James
Alex Katz
William Kentridge
Jeff Koons
Suzy Lake
Laura Letinsky, 25#3
Micah Lexier
Roy Lichtenstein
Attila Richard Lukacs
Medrie MacPhe
Brice Marden
Steve Martin
Allan McCollum
Diana Michener
Joni Mitchell
Malcom Morley, 25#4
Robert Motherwell
Sarah Moon
Robert Murray
Yoko Ono
Evan Penny, 25#2
Edward Poitras
Jane Ash Poitras
Taras Polataiko
Benny Nemerofsky Ramsay, 23#4
Erwin Redl, 24#4
Gina Rorai
Isabella Rossellini
Susan Rothenberg, 24#3
David Salle
Sean Scully, 26#3
Tony Scherman, 26#3
Julian Schnabel
Dana Schutz, 23#4
John Scott
Michael Snow, 26#2
Nancy Spero
Reva Stone, 26#1
David Urban
Carol Wainio
Jeff Wall
William Wegman
Janet Werner
Shirley Wiitasalo, 24#3
Lisa Yuskavage, 26#3

INTERVIEW EXCERPT

From "On the Other Side of the Mirror, A Conversation with Nancy Spero"

BORDER CROSSINGS: Your whole relationship to being silenced has been fascinating. It’s interesting that you would find a way out of silence through Artaud. Were you aware that he was a remarkable drawer as well as a writer?

NANCY SPERO: The only reason that I got into Artaud was we bought a book that a friend of ours, a young poet we knew in 1958 when Leon was teaching at Indiana University, had published on the translations of Artaud. I had known about Artaud but hadn’t shown much interest in him in France. After we had returned from Paris, our middle son was reading to me and translating Artaud back into the French and I said, that’s it. That’s the voice, the tragic artist who couldn’t find a foothold, and who had been knocked around and ignored in bourgeois society and the French intellectuals. The "War Series" had run its course and Artaud arrived.

BORDER CROSSINGS: The interesting thing about Artaud was his fury. Was he the right artist for you to choose because he matched your rage?

NANCY SPERO: I "knew" his bitter disappointment in the world and also I was in pain from arthritis. The arthritis is progressive and you can see the terrible havoc it’s claimed on my hands. You can’t see my elbows because I keep them hidden, but it’s not hard to see my hands. So at that time my choice wasn’t so much visual as it was self-denial; I kept running from doctor to doctor. This started happening in Paris, and I didn’t want to admit to myself that I had this terrible disease. So I was in great pain and it resonated: Artaud, the art world, my being silenced, bourgeois society’s indifference, my physical pain and the inherent futility and/or tragedy of life itself. It fuelled my imagery.